Dative

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The dative case is a grammatical case of the indirect object generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "Brutus gave a book to Cassius".

The dative generally marks the indirect object of a verb, although in some instances the dative is used for the direct object of a verb pertaining directly to an act of giving something. See "Dative with compound verbs", below.

Here are the basic and very general rules for making a dative:

• If a word ends in "-us", then the dative ends in "-o". "Tullius" becomes "Tullio".
• If a word ends in "-a", then the dative ends in "-ae". "Livia" becomes "Liviae".
• If a word ends in "-o", then the dative ends in "-oni". "Cicero" becomes "Ciceroni".
• Many other words change their ending to "-i" whose rules are more difficult and are not detailed here. Here are some just for example:

"Audens" in dative becomes "Audenti",

"Senatus" in dative is "Senatui",

"Venus" in dative is "Veneri",

"exercitus" in dative is "exercitui",

"homo" in dative is "homini",

"consul" in dative is "consuli", and so on.

Usage in practice

An average Nova Roman citizen would use the dative case in the Latin beginning of an e-mail. Learn more about Latin for e-mail.

Dative with compound verbs

Compound verbs built with the following prefixes normally take an object in the dative.

• ab-
• ante-
• circum-
• con-
• in-
• inter-
• ob-
• post-
• prae-
• pro-
• sub-
• super-